Would you support a crowd funded, brand new, Atari 2600 console?

[+wood_jl]

Any such console should NOT include SD slot. They should include just a cart slot. Harmony Cart is available for those who want that functionality. Cost is paramount here, and Harmony functionality is best left to Harmony Cart. OF COURSE it needs to be compatible with the Harmony Cart. But I'd like to see demand for Harmony Cart stay UP and price stay DOWN for any "new" 2600.

 

Can't over-emphasize COST COST COST. CHEAP AS POSSIBLE = practical. SD slots, all these dream lists.....how is all of that going to be implemented, cheap? Just a drop-in 2600 replacement motherboard with video/S-video-out is not reinventing the wheel. This would be extremely sweet. Entrepreneurs could then source used 2600s, drop in the new motherboard, and sell complete systems. This would still be a niche product, so low cost can not be over-emphasized.

Edited February 24, 2013 by wood_jl

[gorfcadet]

Like I said. These are people who have never seen the inside of a Radio Shack and need their smart nephew to program their cable box to record their favorite shows. Emulation and connecting a computer to a tv might as well be a moon landing.

Just for me; I'm not leaving my expensive computer connected to a tv to play Atari. A 50 dollar clone? Yeah, that is a much better idea. A computer, even an old one, uses a lot of electricity compared to a clone on a chip or whatever. Even for me, I don't want the hassle of connecting my computer whenever I want to play or trying to find a place to hide the eyesore in my living room.

 

The real question isn't whether it would sell or not, but why do some people seem to be so worried or offended at the thought of it existing? Flashbacks are at my local WalMart right now. Put a cart slot on it and call it a day. No one is going to outlaw or take away anyone's original hardware. All it would do is bring youngins into the hobby who aren't going to buy a crt for their dorm and help old timers like me from putting excessive wear on my H6.

 

I would like a clone. My wallet would be open to it. The idea that they wouldn't sell because person "A" doesn't want one or see the market for one is silly. I see famiclones all the time so they must sell. People buy Flashbacks or WalMart wouldn't still carry it. Based on that, a Flashback with a cart slot would no doubt sell.

 

I see that some people dislike the idea, but clones won't hurt the collectability of the originals (nintendos still cost plenty) nor will disliking something loud enough stop it from existing; see my Taylor Swift example.

[Impaler_26]

I wouldn't mind another 2600 clone - to each his own. I just won't spend money for one as i prefer original hardware and my humble opinion is as (un)important as everyone else's.

[+Random Terrain]

I would not support it. Everybody who wants to play 2600 games can pick up a real 2600 with a bunch of games for just a few bucks. So IMO another 2600 clone is absolutely pointless.

 

I already posted about that:

 

It's also easy enough to find an A/V modded one, if you want to spend a little extra.

 

I bought one of those and the unreplaceable sound chip died not too long after I got it. Over 150 bucks down the drain:

 

www.atariage.com/forums/topic/115922-ordered-an-atari-2600-today-with-s-video-modification-got-it/

 

It's not pointless if irreplaceable parts in the old systems are dying. I'd rather buy a new clone that has cool extra features and will work with modern HDTVs. Then if something goes wrong, it will be easier to get it fixed.

 

Easier to use (if it will let you have joysticks and paddles always plugged in), easier to fix, cool new features, and no expensive modding necessary is the opposite of pointless.

[2600Guru]

I won't support it, unless it's a handheld. Maybe plays 7800 and 2600 games. The reason why is, anybody can pick up an 2600 for 30 bucks with 10 games. A handheld would actually stick out and be something new besides the real Atari consoles or the flashback clones. I've seen NES and SNES portable clones at my local game store. Why not make an Atari one? What if we can make an AV out on the thing too?

Edited February 24, 2013 by 2600Guru

[Impaler_26]

Easier to use (if it will let you have joysticks and paddles always plugged in), easier to fix, cool new features, and no expensive modding necessary is the opposite of pointless.

 

Good points but you forgot the one huge downside of today's cheap ass electronics - durability. I can't imagine a 2600 clone manufactured today can last 20+ years like a real 2600. I doubt it would even last 3+ years so you would have to get it fixed or buy a new console every few years. And It's quite likely that it would be as cheaply manufactured as most NES/SNES clones i've seen. Another huge reason why i have zero interest in a new 2600 clone is compatibility. If it isn't 100% compatible with every 2600 game (quite unlikely IMO) like a modded FB 2 with cartridge port - NO THANKS!

[+Random Terrain]

Good points but you forgot the one huge downside of today's cheap ass electronics - durability. I can't imagine a 2600 clone manufactured today can last 20+ years like a real 2600. I doubt it would even last 3+ years so you would have to get it fixed or buy a new console every few years.

 

My Xbox, PS2, and Xbox 360 are still working fine so far.

 

 

 

And It's quite likely that it would be as cheaply manufactured as most NES/SNES clones i've seen.

 

If it's made by one or more of the guys who post at AtariAge who are already making quality products, it won't be a cheaply made piece of garbage.

 

 

 

Another huge reason why i have zero interest in a new 2600 clone is compatibility. If it isn't 100% compatible with every 2600 game (quite unlikely IMO) like a modded FB 2 with cartridge port - NO THANKS!

 

If it's made by one or more of the guys who post at AtariAge who are already making quality products, it will be 100% compatible with every 2600 game. They won't have to deal with some big stupid company that will force them to make an inferior product in a lame-ass attempt to save money.

[Schizophretard]

Any such console should NOT include SD slot. They should include just a cart slot. Harmony Cart is available for those who want that functionality. Cost is paramount here, and Harmony functionality is best left to Harmony Cart. OF COURSE it needs to be compatible with the Harmony Cart. But I'd like to see demand for Harmony Cart stay UP and price stay DOWN for any "new" 2600.

 

Can't over-emphasize COST COST COST. CHEAP AS POSSIBLE = practical. SD slots, all these dream lists.....how is all of that going to be implemented, cheap? Just a drop-in 2600 replacement motherboard with video/S-video-out is not reinventing the wheel. This would be extremely sweet. Entrepreneurs could then source used 2600s, drop in the new motherboard, and sell complete systems. This would still be a niche product, so low cost can not be over-emphasized.

 

I see your point about the Harmony Cart but not because of price but because I want Batari to still sell and hopefully profit off of it. So, I vote that the Harmony Cart is it's pack in cart.

 

Why cheap?

[+Gemintronic]

Hyperkin is asking for product suggestions. Get on the Facebook and tell'um

https://www.facebook.com/HyperkinGames

[Andromeda Stardust]

I don't use Facebook FYI but Hyperkin would be a great company to get this product out the door...

[+Gemintronic]

Also, THIS dude just made a FPGA based 2600 with Supercharger support

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/194914-supercharger-demo-unit-video/

 

Let's make a butt-load of these! Encourage, support and collaborate with people like this!

[kevtris]

Also, THIS dude just made a FPGA based 2600 with Supercharger support

http://www.atariage....emo-unit-video/

 

Let's make a butt-load of these! Encourage, support and collaborate with people like this!

 

Yes, that's mine :-)

 

After the current project, I was going to work on a portable classic videogame system, with HDMI and composite / RGB output options.

 

The Atari 2600 console is 100% complete and extremely accurate. I did side by side testing with every single game on the Bankzilla which is a good 90% of them. I played it on my FPGA system and the real 2600 and compared to make sure it looked and played the same. That took a long time.

 

Supercharger support is 100% along with the demo unit, and every mapper works (bankswitch method), even DPC. I could maybe add DPC+ but no one has used it that I know of. The Compumate was added too, and atarivox can be done ON CHIP using the PIC18F core I have made. I have also made a SP0256-AL2 core which runs all the various versions of this chip (SP0256-012 in the Intellivoice, SP0256-019 + ROMs in the Odyssey The Voice, and many other non videogame chips).

 

I daresay my FPGA 2600 is even a tad more accurate than Stella, at least on one game (Snoopy and the Red Barron- the bottom "mesas" aren't quite right in Stella compared to a real 2600). I tested all of the demos on Pouet.net for 2600 which all work flawless, too. Every homebrew I can stuff into it has worked, including all the esoteric tricks like the starfield effect and more than 6 players in a row.

 

I used the TIA chip schematics and extensive testing on a logic analyzer with a bunch of home-made test ROMs to flush out all the esoteric edge cases to make sure accuracy was top notch.

 

The only thing it doesn't support is paddles, but that is because I was lazy and didn't have an analog input device yet. Paddles can be added in about 5-10 minutes when I feel the need to add 'em.

 

Atari 2600 is only the tiny tip of the iceberg, though. I set my sights much, much higher. The eventual goal is to have EVERY classic console up to the end of the 16 bit era in this box by the time I'm done. I've got a pretty good cross-section already. I want to add computers and will, but that ugly thing called a disk drive is a stopping point so far, hehe.

 

As for the other consoles it currently runs:

 

* NES/Famicom - 99.9% (this can never be 100%) all mappers supported, all sound chips, all games work flawless. 205 mappers supported currently

* Atari 2600 100% (as previously stated)

* Odyssey^2 100% + "The Voice" (I performed a reverse engineer on the video chip for this). all games run flawless

* Intellivision 100% + "Intellivoice" + computer adapter (I performed reverse engineering of the STIC to do this) all games run flawless

* Adventure Vision 100% - all 4 games run perfectly. spinning mirror + LED emulation. sound CPU 100% emulated

* SMS/Game Gear 100% - all games run, test ROMs work perfect. YM2413 FM chip fully emulated

* Colecovision 100% - all games run, including my special Coleco multicart ROM image. TMS9918a was logic analyzed and reverse engineered

* Supervision 100% - all games run, sound works. I performed a 100% reverse engineering job from bare console and 1 cartridge.

* Realtime mandelbrot/julia set renderer allowing full pan/zoom/adjust in real time.

* Super Nintendo SPC music playing - plays SPC files with a visualizer if you like chiptunes.

* Full OPL2/ OPL3 FM cores are done and were used for chiptune playing.

 

Not finished:

 

* Gameboy - 90% - audio + CPU done and working, video works but am still reverse engineering exact video rendering details

* C64 - 90% - SID + CPU + CIAs + partial VIC done and working - used to play SID files right now, could make a full C64 in a few days

 

slated to be added:

 

* Atari 7800 (I have Maria schematics, and reverse engineered most of it. easy to add to existing 2600 module)

* Atari 5200 (no work on ANTIC done yet, but I checked it out)

* Atari Lynx (LCD isn't the best, and I would like to be able to sit back and play. implementation looks "interesting".)

* Vectrex (yes, full vector CRT emulation on the FPGA. this is quite easy and not as bad as it sounds. probably will use RGB to output XYZ for oscilloscopes)

* Channel F (not too hard by the looks of it, but I dunno if I will bother yet)

* Videobrain (if I do channel F I will do this. I got 20 sets of the Videobrain ASICs for a few bucks, brand new so I can reverse engineer these)

* Astrocade (extremely easy to add, just been lazy and haven't. I have most of the parts for this done already)

 

in the future, but would need a larger FPGA:

 

* SNES (already have the sound done!)

* Genesis (extremely easy, once I make a 68000 core)

* Neogeo (extremely easy, again need that 68K)

* TG-16 (seems moderately difficult, but not terrible... could add it)

* Super A'can (needs 68K, I already have the 65C02 core, and I have several super a'cans with carts for reverse engineering)

 

As for pricing, I don't know. The FPGA costs $40 by itself, and the rest of the parts are fairly cheap, but it'd be about $250 to make I think after the LCD and battery and the circuit board and the other parts it would need. I am not sure if $250 is too much or not. I would package it in a clear plexiglass box that I make on the laser cutter, however so it should look pretty nice. The current project I'm working on is an FPGA music synthesizer that plays chiptunes (SPC, NSF, etc) and MIDI synthesizer for playing chiptunes thru MIDI, kinda like a super duper bank of chips in a box. It looks like this:

 

 

 

 

The pictures don't do it justice, it's very sexay, and the pieces line up very nice and smooth. The sides aren't rough like it looks in the last picture. The portable console idea will be built using a similar design most likely, only with a different configuration of course. Most likely D pad on the left, buttons on the right and maybe some top buttons, sorta kinda Lynx-like and about the same size or even a bit smaller than the Lynx 2.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Yes, that's mine :-)

 

After the current project, I was going to work on a portable classic videogame system, with HDMI and composite / RGB output options.

 

The Atari 2600 console is 100% complete and extremely accurate. I did side by side testing with every single game on the Bankzilla which is a good 90% of them. I played it on my FPGA system and the real 2600 and compared to make sure it looked and played the same. That took a long time.

 

Supercharger support is 100% along with the demo unit, and every mapper works (bankswitch method), even DPC. I could maybe add DPC+ but no one has used it that I know of. The Compumate was added too, and atarivox can be done ON CHIP using the PIC18F core I have made. I have also made a SP0256-AL2 core which runs all the various versions of this chip (SP0256-012 in the Intellivoice, SP0256-019 + ROMs in the Odyssey The Voice, and many other non videogame chips).

 

I daresay my FPGA 2600 is even a tad more accurate than Stella, at least on one game (Snoopy and the Red Barron- the bottom "mesas" aren't quite right in Stella compared to a real 2600). I tested all of the demos on Pouet.net for 2600 which all work flawless, too. Every homebrew I can stuff into it has worked, including all the esoteric tricks like the starfield effect and more than 6 players in a row.

 

I used the TIA chip schematics and extensive testing on a logic analyzer with a bunch of home-made test ROMs to flush out all the esoteric edge cases to make sure accuracy was top notch.

 

The only thing it doesn't support is paddles, but that is because I was lazy and didn't have an analog input device yet. Paddles can be added in about 5-10 minutes when I feel the need to add 'em.

 

Atari 2600 is only the tiny tip of the iceberg, though. I set my sights much, much higher. The eventual goal is to have EVERY classic console up to the end of the 16 bit era in this box by the time I'm done. I've got a pretty good cross-section already. I want to add computers and will, but that ugly thing called a disk drive is a stopping point so far, hehe.

 

As for the other consoles it currently runs:

 

* NES/Famicom - 99.9% (this can never be 100%) all mappers supported, all sound chips, all games work flawless. 205 mappers supported currently

* Atari 2600 100% (as previously stated)

* Odyssey^2 100% + "The Voice" (I performed a reverse engineer on the video chip for this). all games run flawless

* Intellivision 100% + "Intellivoice" + computer adapter (I performed reverse engineering of the STIC to do this) all games run flawless

* Adventure Vision 100% - all 4 games run perfectly. spinning mirror + LED emulation. sound CPU 100% emulated

* SMS/Game Gear 100% - all games run, test ROMs work perfect. YM2413 FM chip fully emulated

* Colecovision 100% - all games run, including my special Coleco multicart ROM image. TMS9918a was logic analyzed and reverse engineered

* Supervision 100% - all games run, sound works. I performed a 100% reverse engineering job from bare console and 1 cartridge.

* Realtime mandelbrot/julia set renderer allowing full pan/zoom/adjust in real time.

* Super Nintendo SPC music playing - plays SPC files with a visualizer if you like chiptunes.

* Full OPL2/ OPL3 FM cores are done and were used for chiptune playing.

 

Not finished:

 

* Gameboy - 90% - audio + CPU done and working, video works but am still reverse engineering exact video rendering details

* C64 - 90% - SID + CPU + CIAs + partial VIC done and working - used to play SID files right now, could make a full C64 in a few days

 

slated to be added:

 

* Atari 7800 (I have Maria schematics, and reverse engineered most of it. easy to add to existing 2600 module)

* Atari 5200 (no work on ANTIC done yet, but I checked it out)

* Atari Lynx (LCD isn't the best, and I would like to be able to sit back and play. implementation looks "interesting".)

* Vectrex (yes, full vector CRT emulation on the FPGA. this is quite easy and not as bad as it sounds. probably will use RGB to output XYZ for oscilloscopes)

* Channel F (not too hard by the looks of it, but I dunno if I will bother yet)

* Videobrain (if I do channel F I will do this. I got 20 sets of the Videobrain ASICs for a few bucks, brand new so I can reverse engineer these)

* Astrocade (extremely easy to add, just been lazy and haven't. I have most of the parts for this done already)

 

in the future, but would need a larger FPGA:

 

* SNES (already have the sound done!)

* Genesis (extremely easy, once I make a 68000 core)

* Neogeo (extremely easy, again need that 68K)

* TG-16 (seems moderately difficult, but not terrible... could add it)

* Super A'can (needs 68K, I already have the 65C02 core, and I have several super a'cans with carts for reverse engineering)

 

As for pricing, I don't know. The FPGA costs $40 by itself, and the rest of the parts are fairly cheap, but it'd be about $250 to make I think after the LCD and battery and the circuit board and the other parts it would need. I am not sure if $250 is too much or not. I would package it in a clear plexiglass box that I make on the laser cutter, however so it should look pretty nice. The current project I'm working on is an FPGA music synthesizer that plays chiptunes (SPC, NSF, etc) and MIDI synthesizer for playing chiptunes thru MIDI, kinda like a super duper bank of chips in a box. It looks like this:

 

 

 

 

The pictures don't do it justice, it's very sexay, and the pieces line up very nice and smooth. The sides aren't rough like it looks in the last picture. The portable console idea will be built using a similar design most likely, only with a different configuration of course. Most likely D pad on the left, buttons on the right and maybe some top buttons, sorta kinda Lynx-like and about the same size or even a bit smaller than the Lynx 2.

Sounds awesome, but the option to connect it to a real TV would be nice. Do you think it's possible to do a hardware emulation of Vectrex and use an HD frame buffer to output via HDMI? Maybe trace the physical coordinates of the output "beam" into a matrix, taking the speed of the beam and the width of pixels into account when factoring the relative brightness. This matrix could be output to the frame buffer and blacked out 60 times per second. Or the entire matrix could be dimmed by x percentage with every frame to reduce flicker and create a "persistence of vision" effect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_of_vision

 

The vectrex display sould look awesome at 1080p tall and however wide it needs to be. And additional option to rotate 90 degrees for people with swivel mount LCD monitors would be cool too. Also, what type of interface do you plan on running to boot carts? Or are you just storing a ton of ROMs on a storage medium such as flash card (SD, etc...)? Maybe you could come up with a standard protocol to interface with a set of physical adapters based on real cartridge formats. People just pick and choose which cartridge interface adapters they wand to buy if they have real carts laying around and would rather use those instead of illegal ROMs. Then you could also implement a backup manager would would make it easy for owners of prototypes or rare or un-dumped carts on any system, to back up their games.

[+stephena]

I daresay my FPGA 2600 is even a tad more accurate than Stella, at least on one game (Snoopy and the Red Barron- the bottom "mesas" aren't quite right in Stella compared to a real 2600). I tested all of the demos on Pouet.net for 2600 which all work flawless, too. Every homebrew I can stuff into it has worked, including all the esoteric tricks like the starfield effect and more than 6 players in a row.

 

I'm pretty sure that's because of the incomplete player/NUSIZx mid-line changes emulation, which is actually being worked on right now. I appreciate mentioning the cases where it doesn't function the same as Stella; this is testing for us too

[Mr SQL]

The current project I'm working on is an FPGA music synthesizer that plays chiptunes (SPC, NSF, etc) and MIDI synthesizer for playing chiptunes thru MIDI, kinda like a super duper bank of chips in a box. It looks like this:

 

 

 

 

The pictures don't do it justice, it's very sexay, and the pieces line up very nice and smooth. The sides aren't rough like it looks in the last picture. The portable console idea will be built using a similar design most likely, only with a different configuration of course. Most likely D pad on the left, buttons on the right and maybe some top buttons, sorta kinda Lynx-like and about the same size or even a bit smaller than the Lynx 2.

kevtris,

the chiptunes player looks really cool! Any chance you'll add SID support? I have the Rockbox firmware on my audio player which plays SID's but I would love a chip tune walkman with a real SID chip.

[Jinks]

How about a 2600, 5200, 7800 all in one? With hdmi out, wireless controllers that do digital, anolog and paddle support all in one. USB port, 1mb of memory. That I would pay 350 for.. Those are some of the features that it would have to have.

[+batari]

At least two DPC+ games have been released, and more are coming.

 

DPC+ uses an ARM7 core. I strongly doubt you can do a 70 MHz ARM7 complete with peripherals in your FPGA. Alright, you might get away with matching the spec in hardware and implementing a fast Thumb core, but by then you might as well just add the ARM7 chip to your board.

 

If you want to know how well this will sell at $250, I'd ask the guy who did the MCC. It sells for a similar cost and has similar capabilities (though it's mostly targeted for retro computers rather than consoles, I think.)

[kevtris]

Sounds awesome, but the option to connect it to a real TV would be nice. Do you think it's possible to do a hardware emulation of Vectrex and use an HD frame buffer to output via HDMI? Maybe trace the physical coordinates of the output "beam" into a matrix, taking the speed of the beam and the width of pixels into account when factoring the relative brightness.

 

Yes, I was going to have the option for TV output via RGB, composite, HDMI/DVI or component. As for how the Vec emulation worked, I was going to do a proper vector screen "emulation" like that. As for resolution, I won't output 1080 because of the bandwidth, but it shouldn't be an issue, the TV should have no problem upscaling what I output.

 

 

Also, what type of interface do you plan on running to boot carts? Or are you just storing a ton of ROMs on a storage medium such as flash card (SD, etc...)? Maybe you could come up with a standard protocol to interface with a set of physical adapters based on real cartridge formats. People just pick and choose which cartridge interface adapters they wand to buy if they have real carts laying around

 

Yes, microSD cards and an on-screen menu interface is how it works. I cannot include cartridge connectors for several reasons: one, I already run 9 consoles, so the sheer quantity of connectors would be insane. and two, ROMs are plenty good enough for it. Also, since I keep adding new stuff, I would have to keep making more and more connectors to plug into it. The final problem is many of the connectors are proprietary. You cannot go to the store (or Digikey, etc) and buy Super Nintendo connectors, or gameboy connectors, or Adventure Vision connectors (let alone an adventurevision cart!) So there's that. Even for systems like the 2600 with a standard connector, you almost need some kind of enclosure to open the shutter on them. The final problem is the sheer number of connections for say, NES (60 or so are needed) and then level translation between the 5V cartridges and 3.3V logic of the FPGA.

 

 

I'm pretty sure that's because of the incomplete player/NUSIZx mid-line changes emulation, which is actually being worked on right now. I appreciate mentioning the cases where it doesn't function the same as Stella; this is testing for us too

 

Oh, so THAT is how they did that. I couldn't quite figure it out, other than it worked or didn't. Are there other games that do that?

 

kevtris, the chiptunes player looks really cool! Any chance you'll add SID support? I have the Rockbox firmware on my audio player which plays SID's but I would love a chip tune walkman with a real SID chip.

 

Thanks! Well I have an older chiptune "walkman" I made earlier that has quad SID emulation along with analog filters I made to emulate the filter in hardware. The current synth that I showed a picture of could do SID easily but needs filter emulation on the FPGA somehow, which I'd have to look into. I would really like to support SID though. The older synth supports:

 

.SID (C64 SID) stereo, but there are actually 4 SIDs emulated at once

.NSF (my NES/Famicom music) normal APU, N106, VRC6, VRC7, MMC5, FDS, Sunsoft 5B extended audio support

.SAP (Atari 8 bit music) all SAP files were tested, 4 POKEYs are emulated

.GBS (Gameboy sound) most GSB files worked, I found many that didn't due to bad rips. lots of those got fixed.

.SGC (My SMS/Game Gear/Coleco sound file format) supports FM on SMS (YM2413)

.CMF (creative music format, kinda midi like) for OPL2

.KSM (ken's labyrinth music), for OPL2

.D00 (Vibrants player) for OPL2

.WLF/apogree/ID (generic ID games music format, Wolf3D, commander keen, etc) for OPL2

.RAW (raw FM format) for OPL2 and OPL3

 

This current, newer one will support all of those and SPC out of the box, though SID might not have filters at first.

 

The current one will have the following sound chips under MIDI control: (all chips are done and fully debugged/tested)

 

NES APU, N106, VRC6, VRC7, MMC5, FDS, sunsoft 5B

4x POKEY

8x TIA channels, with full tonal range or limited "2600" range

4x SID (not sure of filters yet)

generic OPL2 / OPL3 FM

Gameboy sound channels

4x AY-3-8910

4x SN76489

SP0256-AL2 (speech synthesis)

 

Again, all of these are done and tested and working 100%. I already have implemented them on various things so it's a simple matter of dropping them in.

[Mr SQL]

Thanks! Well I have an older chiptune "walkman" I made earlier that has quad SID emulation along with analog filters I made to emulate the filter in hardware. The current synth that I showed a picture of could do SID easily but needs filter emulation on the FPGA somehow, which I'd have to look into. I would really like to support SID though. The older synth supports:

 

.SID (C64 SID) stereo, but there are actually 4 SIDs emulated at once

.NSF (my NES/Famicom music) normal APU, N106, VRC6, VRC7, MMC5, FDS, Sunsoft 5B extended audio support

.SAP (Atari 8 bit music) all SAP files were tested, 4 POKEYs are emulated

.GBS (Gameboy sound) most GSB files worked, I found many that didn't due to bad rips. lots of those got fixed.

.SGC (My SMS/Game Gear/Coleco sound file format) supports FM on SMS (YM2413)

.CMF (creative music format, kinda midi like) for OPL2

.KSM (ken's labyrinth music), for OPL2

.D00 (Vibrants player) for OPL2

.WLF/apogree/ID (generic ID games music format, Wolf3D, commander keen, etc) for OPL2

.RAW (raw FM format) for OPL2 and OPL3

 

This current, newer one will support all of those and SPC out of the box, though SID might not have filters at first.

 

The current one will have the following sound chips under MIDI control: (all chips are done and fully debugged/tested)

 

NES APU, N106, VRC6, VRC7, MMC5, FDS, sunsoft 5B

4x POKEY

8x TIA channels, with full tonal range or limited "2600" range

4x SID (not sure of filters yet)

generic OPL2 / OPL3 FM

Gameboy sound channels

4x AY-3-8910

4x SN76489

SP0256-AL2 (speech synthesis)

 

Again, all of these are done and tested and working 100%. I already have implemented them on various things so it's a simple matter of dropping them in.

Those both look Awesome! Fantastic you are emulating the analougue filters; the TinySID emulation I'm using with RockBox has no support for that and you can really hear the difference.

 

The TIA support looks really cool too; would be nice to be able to browse a folder of 2600 demo binaries and play them - there was a 2600 emulator the developers almost got working in RockBox that would have been great for that. You're doing 2600 emulation projects too so I imagine you could add the rest of the core to the player for this?

[mos6507]

Interesting projects here.

 

We passed all these milestones in the 90s and 00s. Software emulation came of age. Then we had all the Flashback type things, with different strategies applied to emulate the hardware at the software or hardware level. Nothing mainstream ever did it 100%, although of course Flashback came close.

 

 

We also had the "let's make it portable!" argument, and things like the GP2X come and go.

 

I think if you prefer the experience of plugging carts into an authentic system, a system that outputs video (I prefer s-video), then you're probably running on hardware that is creeping up to 40 years old that was meant to output RF. If you haven't had to repair it, odds are you will. We're in uncharted territory even for the VCS, and not everyone is good at fixing their own stuff.

 

So I've felt that the cheapest way forward is to cannibalize parts from old systems. Save the key 3 chips and transplant them into a fresh board that does everything a piece of vintage gear should do these days.

 

The reason people keep bringing up Harmony is that the general trend, invariably, is away from physical media. If people buy a CD, they immediately rip it and play it on iTunes. While it's good to buy homebrews, the tangible aspect of it and all, it's just plain more convenient to load games up on a multicart. I guess you lose the frying, but how often do you feel like frying Space Invaders?

 

The one thing that would make me really happy to set up a 2600 again rather than playing Stella (or JStella for that matter, which makes 2600 gaming as ubiquitous as a flash game) is the thought of taking an old system and plugging the chips into a new board in a really nice case, like real wood or something. That's what I've wanted for ages and I still do, and it's the sort of "Object d'art" project that might actually make sense on Kickstarter.

 

I never liked the VCSP projects because they seemed more like self-promotional vehicles on the part of Ben. Each one was quirky and different and not really what I would consider ideally ergonomic. I would like to see something well-designed, refined, a modern case-mod for middle-aged eccentrics who want their 2600 fix but don't want to be shackled to old plastic, with a realistic expectation of long service-life to come.

Edited March 10, 2013 by mos6507

[+Random Terrain]

(or JStella for that matter, which makes 2600 gaming as ubiquitous as a flash game)

 

Speaking of JStella, this is better:

 

javatari.org

 

I use it on my web site for Seaweed Assault and Tone Toy 2008.

[+SpiceWare]

So I've felt that the cheapest way forward is to cannibalize parts from old systems. Save the key 3 chips and transplant them into a fresh board that does everything a piece of vintage gear should do these days.

I like this idea. The FPGA ones are interesting, but I suspect there's still something things that aren't 100% - I'd be interested in knowing if the 32 character kernel works correctly or not. If the firmware can be updated by the end user, and it's maintained as well as Stella, then it might not be an issue.

 

I guess you lose the frying, but how often do you feel like frying Space Invaders?

Double shots can be triggered when loading from the Harmony. After selecting the Space Invaders ROM, instead of starting with the fire button just hold down RESET and wait to release it until after Space Invaders has loaded and is on screen.

Edited March 10, 2013 by SpiceWare

[mos6507]

Speaking of JStella, this is better:

 

javatari.org

 

I use it on my web site for Seaweed Assault and Tone Toy 2008.

 

That's what I was playing with recently, then. The Java stuff has really come of age. I never thought Java would run Atari stuff smoothly, but it's like butter on my most recent hardware. Brute force wins in the end.

[mos6507]

Double shots can be triggered when loading from the Harmony. After selecting the Space Invaders ROM, instead of starting with the fire button just hold down RESET and wait to release it until after Space Invaders has loaded and is on screen.

 

I haven't followed the status of emulators but there was an initiative once (going all the way back to stellalist) to figure out exactly what frying did to the machine and to simulate that even on emulators.

[+SpiceWare]

I haven't followed the status of emulators but there was an initiative once (going all the way back to stellalist) to figure out exactly what frying did to the machine and to simulate that even on emulators.

Yep - Stella emulates it. Hit BACKSPACE.